Four flooring industry veterans have launched a new company, East Paragon Flooring, to deliver a luxury collection of waterproof hard surface floors to the North American market.

Don Finkell, Carr Newton, and Jesse Xia launched the company, which is based in Rocky Face, Georgia, and Emily Finkell is consulting. The team has more than 100 years of combined experience in flooring. 

“We travel the world to bring you the best in design, performance and value,” said East Paragon co-founder Don Finkell.

Don Finkell, who most recently was vice chairman of flooring for Broad Range Logistics, has over 40 years of experience gathered at Anderson Hardwood, Shaw Industries, and as founder of American OEM, which he sold to AHF Products in 2021.

Carr Newton has more than 20 years of experience at Shaw Industries, Cumberland Products Group, and Home Legend.

Jesse Xia brings over 20 years of experience sourcing and importing products from Asia and began his career with Don Finkell at Anderson Hardwood.

Emily Finkell, who recently retired as VP of residential design at Engineered Floors, is a product designer and interior designer who was also director of styling at Shaw Industries for 13 years. She launched Emily Morrow Home engineered hardwood, which was sold to AHF Products in 2021.

The East Paragon Flooring Team (from left): Don Finkell, Emily Finkell, Carr Newton and Jesse Xia. Photos: East Paragon Flooring.

Don Finkell said the team saw a need in the market for thicker, high-quality, and high-design SPC floors.

“We’ve all heard a lot of negatives about the thinner SPC having breaking and chipping problems with the locking system, but that's almost exclusively in thin material,” Finkell said. “Even though we are coming into this category later, we have the hindsight. You can tell the pioneers in this industry because they have arrows in their back, but we have the benefit of not having to go through some of that.”

East Paragon Flooring will supply Stone Plastic Composite (SPC), Wood Plastic Composite (WPC), and waterproof laminate flooring products. The company’s first collection, Balena, is French-inspired waterproof flooring crafted from high-quality stone composite and designed to replicate the colorways and textures of authentic French Oak floorboards. The 9-inch-wide planks have a clean design, are embossed in register, and measure 8 mm thick. The products are designed to be highly realistic, featuring a unique textured ultra-matte, light-absorbing finish that enhances their aesthetic appeal.

Inspired by their world travels, the team chose the word “Balena,” which means "whale" in Italian. Don and Emily Finkell discovered the word on a whale-watching trip to the North Pole.

Balena’s initial offering, which will debut in October, will include 10 SKUs, merchandised on a streamlined white display. The products have a proven track record: Xia successfully sold these higher-end SPC looks on the West Coast under the brand Paragon.

The East Paragon team plans a methodical expansion through flooring retailers and distributors. 

“We’re not going to eat the whale in one bite,” Finkell said. “Because of Jesse’s expertise and connections, we’re also looking for buyers who would have the capability to source a container direct. We have thousands of decors that we can use, and we have relationships with suppliers. But we’re not committed to just importing—we also have relationships with domestic suppliers.”

With increased ocean freight logistics and pricing issues, more flooring retailers and distributors are seeking domestic supply. East Paragon has a warehouse in Savannah, Georgia, and Don Finkell’s collaboration with Broad Range Logistics will help reach 11 additional warehouses across the country.